New company, McArthur Murray, to benefit from global expertise of partners; Growth plan to include acquisitions and an IPO within a year

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Dubai-based joint venture between Teledata Inc. and Horizon International today announced that it has acquired `The ITP Consulting Group,’ (ITPC)’ incorporating its three divisions, Executive Search Group ITPC, Spectrum Recruitment and The Contractor, with effect from October 14th, 2006. Established in 2001, by Charles Willson & the British- owned Information Technology & Publishing company, The ITP Consulting Group is headquartered in Dubai, employs 34 staff and has built the largest executive search group head quartered in the Middle East. Commenting on the acquisition and future strategy, Charles Willson, said: “This is a very exciting move for us, ITP has realized its investment in recruitment and now wishes to focus on its core business of publishing. This has given us an opportunity to expand globally through a parent company that already operates in recruitment and one that shares our vision for growth through global acquisition and IPO within the year.” Both Horizon International and Teledata are leading software and services companies. Teledata Inc. focuses on providing enterprise-wide solutions for the marine, education and utility sectors. Dubai-based Horizon International Information Systems Group will now incorporate business units - McArthur Murray, Transworld, Horizon Information Systems (ME) LLC, Horizon Information Systems and Net Tel. Its products and services cover comprehensive HR services, Investments, Consulting, and end-to-end IT Solutions.
For McArthur Murray, formerly ITP Consulting, the move allows the group to focus on its long term expansion goals and acquisition plans that will enable the company to escalate their executive search business into multiple new geographical areas and provide global recruitment strategies to its numerous Fortune 500 clients. Spectrum Recruitment (www.spectrumr.com) and The Contractor (www.thecontractorme.com) will continue their expansion through the recruitment division of the Horizon Information Systems team (HiSys HR). www.hisys.ae. The growth will also take a global path with initial expansion within the Gulf region then East through Asia to China. “Our objective is to roll out an Executive Search group in McArthur Murray that will have a limited service specialization of probably six key areas, allowing us to have a boutique type feel to what will be a global group. Through Teledata’s existing global network we intend to leverage the existing portfolio of companies to support a specialized search group the will deliver in 13 countries,” Wilson said.
Over the last five years, ITP Consulting group has grown into a market leader in the Gulf recruitment sector and employs over 30 people across the three divisions to providing a diverse range of recruitment services ranging from sourcing Board level assignments to managed services. The company concentrates primarily on the Construction/Real Estate, IT/Communications, Financial Markets and GCC Conglomerates sectors. Horizon Group Chairman, Awni Nemer said: “Through our existing recruitment operations within the Middle East and Teledata’s in Asia and the US this will enable us to expand contracting and recruitment services seamlessly into China and Europe. There is such a wealth of experience within the group that have all ready highlighted through personal experiences what we new to be correct, that the recruitment industry has been getting away for far too long with a second rate service with premium rates. Our combined group knowledge and our acquisition targets will bring together some of the best global recruitment teams around the globe.” “Since we believe it is important to have a good delivery capability, we built a highly competitive team and created time-tested and proven delivery mechanisms across all our value streams. This enabled us to grow in an organic and sustainable manner. Today, we are in a position to invest and diversify in a range of complementing products and services, continue to serve our customers much better and create more value all across,” he added.